Kingcrabshipping
by Scrapolite
Summary: Jack attempts to confess his feelings for Yusei that he has been carrying around for years. He's scared of what Yusei will think, or even if Yusei will feel the same. Set around episode 42 - after the Fortune cup and just after Yusei get Aki on their side Jack X Yusei (Going to rate M because I don't trust myself - will be in later chapters though) Kingcrabshipping Yaoi
1. Confession

Confession

"Hey, Yusei!"

Jack yelled across to where Yusei was working on his runner – the same spot the black-haired boy had been in since 7:00 that morning.

Upon hearing his name, Yusei turned around.

"Duel me." Jack demanded. It was the first time him and Yusei had been alone properly without the Fortune Cup hanging over their heads. They were staying at Goodwin's house temporarily, despite Yusei's distrust of the Director. A perfect time to duel.  
"Can't it wait? I'm a bit busy." Came the reply, with Yusei turning back to his runner.

"You can finish that later." Jack insisted.

He strode over to Yusei. Jack had something on his mind and he wasn't going to take no for an answer. He continued until his shadow fell over Yusei.

"Come on."

Yusei fixed him with his eyes and Jack had to stifle his discomfort. He felt as though Yusei was staring right through him, trying to work out some cause to his request. Steeling his gaze, Jack furrowed his brows.

"Let's duel." Without asking Jack unclipped Yusei's duel disk and tossed it at him. He then backed away a few metres before activating his duel disk.

"There's no stopping you today." Yusei commented.

Jack tensed at the hint of curiosity in Yusei's statement. "We haven't duelled for a while." He retorted, sounding more defensive than he would have liked. Yusei seemed to notice this with a raised brow though he said nothing, activating own duel disk.

The duel quickly escalated with both duellists bringing out their ace monsters.

"Red dragon archfiend attack his stardust dragon." Jack roared.

"Not so fast," Yusei countered with a smile creeping onto his face. "I activate my trap: Mirror force. Shall I tell you what it does?" He teased.

"No thanks." Jack retorted bitterly, though he couldn't stop a smile tugging at his lips when he met Yusei's smirking satisfaction of stopping his attack.

"I guess I'll end my turn with a face down. But be prepared Yusei, you're only on 200 life points." Jack warned. Jack still had his Power Breaker on the field to protect him from Stardust attacking directly, though he suspected it would be destroyed. Yusei had worn him down during the duel and both were barely clinging to life points with Jack on 400 and Yusei on 200. Jack took a moment to muse on how much Yusei came alive in a duel whilst most of the time keeping up a cold exterior – _not too different to me, I suppose._

"My turn then." Yusei drew a card. "I activate card rotator from my hand and switch the battle position of Power Breaker from defence mode to attack mode."

Shit.

"And now. Stardust dragon attack his Power Breaker with Cosmic flare." Yusei ordered.

A beam of glittery blue energy burst out of Yusei's dragon upon its master's order. There was nothing Jack could do to stop his attack. He fell to the ground the instant Power Breaker was destroyed and Stardust's attack reduced his life points to zero.

Even with the defeat Jack couldn't summon the will power to wipe the smile off his face. He had missed duelling with Yusei so much more than he would dare admit out loud.

Rising to his feet, he saw Yusei had already walked over to meet him. They stared at each other wordlessly for several long moments. Jack kept trying to think of things to say, but everything melted away as he gazed into Yusei's eyes.

"OK, this was fun." Yusei eventually broke the silence. "But now I need to get back to my runner." He already turned to walk away.

Jack bit back a growl of frustration. This hadn't gone as he had planned. He had the intention to use the duel as a method for building up to what he really wanted to talk to Yusei about – now it seems he had missed his chance. Again.

Jack reached out to grab Yusei's arm. "One thing first."

The two stare at each other, Yusei waiting for Jack to say something and Jack hoping he could string a sentence together.

"Lately I've – Well for a while now I've had." _Jack Atlas, you coward._ He felt his fists clench with frustration and embarrassment.

"Jack – what's the matter?" Yusei asked turning fully to face him now fixing Jack with a look of concern.

Once again the look in Yusei's eyes made Jack forget everything. "Nothing don't worry about it." He spoke levelly, straightening himself. "Go and sort out your runner."

Yusei looked like he was about to say more but he didn't ask. And for once Jack wished he did. He wished Yusei would show him more attention. _Like he used to before you messed it all up._ If he had never left satellite this wouldn't have been a problem. Or if he had never seen Yusei again.

Jack watched as Yusei turned his back on him. Walking away. But Jack was sick of all of his pent up feelings. He had to tell Yusei. He couldn't go on like this.

"I love you, Yusei."

Yusei must have heard, for he stopped.

 _Shit._

Yusei then resumed walking.


	2. Distraction

The red runner stood before him, but Yusei froze. He couldn't get back to work; his mind was racing and his entire system felt alive with undirected energy. The wave of emotions coursing through him were unfamiliar and scared him a little.

 _Jack couldn't have really said that ..._ But he did. And Yusei had no idea what to think.

He clenched his hand around the wrench he was holding. Part of him didn't understand how Jack could have feelings like that and still betray him. Why? But Yusei found his brain wouldn't work out any kind of reasoning, his mind just kept repeating the fact that Jack loved him.

He heard footsteps behind him and saw Leo and Luna walking across on the stone path towards him.

"There you are!" Leo cried.

"Leo, he's busy." Luna nudged her brother, seeing the wrench in his hand.

"No, it's OK." Yusei interrupted, privately glad for the break. He put down the wrench and stood up. "What's the problem?"

The thought of Jack's confession lingered on Yusei's mind all afternoon. He found that no matter what he was doing it was always there. It was on the tip of his tongue in conversation without ever creeping into words.

Yusei was alone now; having just finished the final adjustment of Leo's duel-disk as the boy was convinced he would be duelling the Dark Signers himself. He had retreated inside Goodwin's mansion after giving up hope of working on his runner. His mind was too distracted.

Staring out of the window, he realised how late it was – the sky was turning to a grey-purple promising rain. Idly, he wondered if Jack was thinking about him.

He hadn't seen Jack since that morning. Not in the house or in the grounds. _I should have said something_.

Yusei's head fell into his hands – no one was around to see – and he tugged his hair. This frustration, he didn't know what it was. But he felt useless, a slave to his feelings yet he didn't know what he felt.

Lifting his head he tried to think clearly. He knew he had upset Jack. Otherwise Jack would have been all in his face – Jack was only quiet when he was sad.

Would Jack ever bring it up again? If this had been something that had been on his mind for a while it must have taken a lot to say it after all these years, maybe he would never mention it.

For some reason Yusei felt a lurch in his heart at this. But it was some replaced by a wave of fear that he may actually have feelings for his best friends and foster brother.

 _I need to be ready, if Jack wants to talk again_. But I don't know what to say.

Just then Leo walked in, signalling Yusei to immediately fix his expression into a hard stare.

"Hey, you alright?" Yusei greeted the younger boy with a level tone.

"Yeah, I'm just looking for Jack." Leo was frowning as he looked around the room.

"Jack?" That was Akiza.

"I don't know where he is and I've looked everywhere." Leo whined. "You would not believe how many rooms there are in this place."

"I saw him go out earlier, but that was ages ago." She tilted her head noticing the view out of the window. "And it looks like it's going to rain, his lordship wouldn't dare soil his coat."

Though she had made the comment lightly, Yusei couldn't help being worried.

"We'll do one last check," Aki spoke to Leo. "Wait for me in the kitchen."

"Yeah, thanks Akiza!" Leo headed off, his bright nature apparently restored.

Yusei's thoughts returned to Jack. What if he had been out all day? What if-

"Yusei?"

He hadn't even noticed Akiza walk over to him. She seemed to be waiting for something.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, that's what I'd like to know." She implored.

Yusei didn't respond, just frowned.

"Because I haven't seen Jack since he left. And generally when Jack's around he makes sure you know about it." There was concern in her voice despite her airy tone. "Did you fall out with Jack?"

"Well, no- I..." Yusei paused for a moment; maybe Jack had seen it that way. "I'll go and find him. Where did you see him go?"


	3. Procrastination

Following Akiza's recount of Jack's last whereabouts, Yusei had grabbed his Jacket and headed out. The sky had turned from a beautiful day to an angry swarm of clouds with the promise of rain. Hoping he would find Jack before the inevitable storm he headed in the direction of the trees.

Akiza had volunteered to come with him to help him find Jack, but Yusei had declined, seeing it as an opportunity to talk to Jack alone. Now Yusei hung back, fighting between concern for his friend and the growing unease of having to confront him. With one last glance back at the house, and wishing he had accepted Akiza's offer, he turned away and began his search in earnest, his heart rising up his throat with every step that brought him closer to Jack.

Yusei was still unsure of his own feelings. With this new revelation he was beginning to wonder how much he really knew about his friends – Kalin was a prime example. Yusei had had no idea that his former friend had harboured such an intense hatred for him. And Jack was in love with him. Was he just blind to everyone's problems?

"Hey, wait there!"

Yusei was snapped out of his thoughts at the shout from behind him.

Relief surged through him as he recognised the messy orange hair of another of his old friends. Crow stopped in front of him, panting.

"Heard Jack's gone walkabout and thought you may want a hand." He said, falling in with step with Yusei.

"I appreciate it." Yusei replied honestly, glad that he could now avoid a one-on-one interaction with Jack.

"We'd better find him before it rains." Crow muttered.

"I'm sure we'll find him soon." Yusei reasoned.

Crow scratched the back of his head. "I am surprised he'd come out here. Long walks in the forest. Not very Jack Atlus."

"What am I saying?," Crow continued, "He's probably sipping tea in some overpriced cafe."

"But if he was going to do that then why would he go in a forest?" Yusei pointed out.

"It's Jack. Anything goes."

"So you're not worried?"

"I don't know. Are you?"

"Not any more." Yusei said, lifting his gaze to see the duelist, his white coat gleaming in the murky depths of the forest. Jack was stood a little way across from the forest path, where the trees opened up and the forest ended, apparently staring at the sky.

Leaving the path Yusei and Crow made their way towards him with Crow expressing his disappointment as a drop of rain hit his nose.

"We've been looking for you." Crow called out to Jack, who gave a grunt in response as he turned to look at the pair.

Yusei found himself looking away at the view when he felt Jack's gaze fix onto him. They were on a jutting edge of cliff that fanned out from the forest into a wide open space. Further ahead were large walls of rock jutting up sharply from the land.

"Come on Jack let's get back." Crow complained. "The rain's only going to get worse."

"If you want to go back then go, you're not in charge of me." Jack argued, indignation ringing in his voice at the notion of Crow giving him and order.

He stalked off in the opposite direction of the forest heading towards the rising cliffs.

"For fuck sake Jack, we've been out looking for you because we didn't know where you were." Crow shouted running after Jack, with Yusei following after them.

"No one asked you to come looking for me." Jack snarled, turning to face Crow as thunder boomed overhead.

"We thought you might be in trouble or lost. How wrong were we? You're just being the same old Jack Atlus and not giving a fuck about other people-"

"Guys calm down." Yusei interjected hurrying over the path to get closer to them so that he was in between his two arguing friends.

Jack snorted and marched further down the path as it narrowed against the opposing cliff and drop on the other side. Rain pelted in sheets showing no signs of relenting.

But Crow wasn't finished. He hurled after Jack, tugging his coat.

"Get off me!" Jack objected.

"Stop being stubborn and come back." Crow shouted, wiping wet hair out out of his eyes. "We're all soaking wet now because of you. So COME BACK!"

Yusei knew that Crow had the best intentions, but the way he was going about it wasn't going to work. The cold from the pouring rain soaking his clothes made him want to get back as soon as possible. But for that to happened Jack would have to decide himself that he wanted to go back.

He ran over, shouting above the rain and thunder a he approached. "This isn't helping just-"

"I'll do what I want!" Jack roared.

Yusei stepped back as Crow was pushed towards him.

"Oh, that's how it's going to be?" Crow's eye glinted seeing a challenge.

"Crow! Stop!" Yusei yelled to no avail.

Yusei attempted to get between the two again, expect was driven back avoiding Jack's arm as he lunged out at Crow.

Placing his foot behind him to regain his balance, Yusei felt solid ground for a second before it was snatched away, disintegrating under his weight. He staggered back, foot sliding over wet mud. With no grip Yusei felt himself lurch backwards.

He felt sick with fear as he fell back, arms flailing as he completely lost his balance. A scream ripped from his throat and he disappeared from sight.

* * *

 _Yep, apparently still going through with this one. I do have plans for future chapters and possibly additional chapters for one of my other stories. I'm open to suggestions – either for this story, one of my others or a new one entirely. Constructive criticism always appreciated._

 _Also very impressed I managed to figure out how to get that long line separater thing - I've been trying to find out how to do it for a while_


End file.
